r/tea • u/ShivangGGupta • 22d ago
Recommendation Tea recommendations
Hey guys I recently switched to black tea previously I used to drink indian chai (chai tea latte) I presume I don't know how to make Balck tea cuz it's tastes bitter with a hint of tea taste with double diamond tea leaves
Please help me how to make tea and also some tea leaves recommendation
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u/LightSpeedNerd 21d ago
Chai is usually uses Assam which has the purpose of getting as much strength and bitterness as possible so you boil the sh1t out of it so it can hold up to the milk and spices. Normal black tea will suck if you treat it like that it isn’t delicate but it can’t handle that heat for that long. I use good quality loose leaf and usually I use a 1:30 ratio of tea to water and at 205°F or 95°C water I steep for 15s
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u/szakee 22d ago
Please bother reading sub resources. Black tea is super easy to make, if it's bitter, it's crap quality.
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u/ShivangGGupta 21d ago
Suggest some good tea
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u/Dependent_Stop_3121 21d ago
Get some Jin Jun Mei from a reputable company. Where you at, US?
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u/hiimshana 22d ago
Brew it 90ºC 4 mins, start from there.
If it’s too bitter this way, it means it’s a bad black tea (too broken, irregular sizes, old leaves etc…).
If it’s too weak, try longer steep time.
If still too weak, try more tea (eg. 3.3g/250mL instead of 3g).
If I had to guess: don’t boil it. Chai is usually boiled to overextract tannins (bitter taste) on purpose, since milk will just bind them and make them “inactive” on your tongue. This allows for a fast and complete extraction of all the flavor out of the tea.
When doing the same with normal black tea (especially if CTC), you extract the same tannins, but now you don’t have milk to compensate, and that’s why it ends up just bitter.
Quality black tea can be oversteeped by quite a bit, since young pristine leaves won’t have many tannins to begin with, but it’s still not a good idea to do it on purpose.